“How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.” - Thomas Jefferson

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

August 23

As a lawyer, Lincoln often discouraged people from bringing unnecessary lawsuits. Once, a man wanted him to bring a suit for $2.50 against a penniless man, and Lincoln could not talk him out of it. Lincoln charged him a retainer of $10.00, won the case, kept $5.00 for himself and gave the other $5.00 to the penniless defendant who promptly paid the $2.50 he owed and kept the rest for himself. Thus everyone involved won including the angry client who, though he paid dearly for it, felt his revenge vindicated.